It took Apple 6 years to correct its last mistake, the trashcan Mac Pro. Part of the reason for Apple taking so long to correct mistakes is so many apologists uncritically support them. The pundits don’t get how outrageously insulting it is to drown out and ignore what enthusiast/users say they want (e.g., Macs with upgradable slots) and instead decree what pundits think you need and should be happy with. That level of uncritical support helps Apple ignore problems. The pundits are sure they know best. Remember, they declared how the trashcan Mac was also for pros, rather than being critical about how it served neither pros nor enthusiasts. Despite being wrong then, they’re happy to reassert the same now. The pundits can’t seem to think beyond wanting to curry Apple favor.
Being an Apple sycophant has its privileges after all. Maybe they’ll get to interview some Apple exec where they’ll ask banal questions and incessantly fluff Apple plastic talking points. And if they don’t play ball and choose to call Apple out on mistakes, maybe they wont get the next Apple event invite.
But maybe, if more pundits could think for themselves, and more of them would speak up for enthusiasts and users, then just maybe, Apple would be motivated to do a better job.
Right on the money.
Dit you actually read that article that you linked to at all or did you just look at the headline? It does come across to optimistic but isn’t a piece by an apologist that uncritically supports Apple at all.
(from https://www.macworld.com/article/2082515/mac-pro-late-2013-review-apples-new-mac-pro-really-is-for-pros.html?page=2)
“Of course, some people won’t be happy with the new Mac Pro’s lack of internal expansion, and given the current paucity of Thunderbolt peripherals, and the limited number of apps that take full advantage of the Mac Pro’s capabilities, the new computer is in some ways ahead of its time. But if you want a Mac for professional work, you’ll have to accept these limitations—or keep using your older Mac Pro until more hardware and software is available. ”
…and that was exactly what happened. People kept using the older Mac Pro or stopped using a Mac for their professional work. The writer also mentions that the ecosystem (peripherals and future GPU upgrades) are needed to make the trashcan better over time. That clearly didn’t happen because of the failures of this design.
avgalen,
It’s hugely apologetic in its support for Apple. The whole “Bottom Line” section at the end is one big apologetic.
Apologetic: Yes
Uncriticically supporting Apple at all: No
avgalen,
The “criticisms” were token, and not genuine at all. The criticisms ended with nonsense like claiming “pro” means something different because Apple wants it to, or that money shouldn’t be a problem.
I disagree with you here. The writer made it clear that this was Apple’s take on Pro, not how he thought on Pro.
“This new approach will definitely present challenges—both logistical and financial”
“Why this dramatic change from what we’d come to expect from a “pro” computer? [b]Apple’s take is [/b]…”
“How much of this is PR spin, and how much is Apple actually solving problems in new ways while embracing new technologies?”
“For many years, “pro” meant a big, expandable tower case, lots of internal storage, replaceable graphics cards, and so on. [b]For Apple, it now means [/b]…”
I see the pattern repeating though. Many sites including this one have made arguments in favor of the insane price of the new model as well as the premium for the display, it’s stand, etc. The new unit is not for enthusiasts they say. Well, the 2012 model worked for pros and enthusiasts and while the new model is closer to that vision it’s not there.
My wife gave up on Apple with the trashcan mac. She has a 2012 mac pro that she hasn’t booted for a year, having switched to a custom built PC running windows 10, and a i7 5820k. She’s looking at a Ryzen 3000 series build or possibly a threadripper right now. She had owned two mac pros as well as a powermac g4, two of which were dual socket systems. She used them for programming and gaming. Apple lost a customer because they ignored her as a customer and her needs.
Apple is doing the same thing again. The base model specs are insulting on the new mac pro. For 6000 dollars, one would expect 1TB of disk space and 32GB of RAM in a workstation at this point. 8 cores is also a bit light considering AMD is shipping consumer 12 core chips next month and 16 core in september. Apple has always put less ram and disk space in systems than conventional for the period to cut costs. Workstations should be more powerful than some consumer iMac or dell pc.
Apple needs to either drop the price substantially or increase the base specs a bit to justify the huge price.
laffer1
+1 for John Kheit and you’re right as well. Rather than using a critical eye, too many fans are in auto-praise mode, shielding apple from having to address it’s shortcomings. One might be pleased with apple overall, which is fine, but sometimes it goes way too far and turns into a kind of blind faith with fanatics refusing to criticize apple under any circumstances, regardless of their personal hypocrisy. It reinforces apple’s indifference rather than encouraging them to do better. It’s not just corporate fanboys, sometimes the same thing happens in politics (ie trump). What makes people subjugate themselves so willingly to other people and corporations? Is this what happens with stockholm syndrome? I find this whole sheep mentality in adults incomprehensible.
Apple users have often paid a premium, but as mentioned in the past this is more enterprise level pricing. At such prices, the apple pro market will be subject to gentrification leaving many of apple’s high end pro users with no affordable options. It’s not just the prices, but that apple’s entry level price of $6000 only gets you mediocre performance…
Apple unveils new Mac Pro
If you want to upgrade to a high performance 2019 macpro workstation, you’re looking at $10-20k.
Are there two different things going on here with the perception versus reality?
I work in SE Asia and often walk into headquarters for design and development studios and see workstation after workstation lined with Mac Prso, but not a lot of what I call real staff or work going on. Usually these are sales and marketing facilities at the customer interface, with assistants pulling up models and drafts for client information and approval. If you get heavily involved in a real project at grass roots level you’ll often end up down the road at a converted warehouse sweat shop full 5 or 10 times as many staff on 1/2 the wage hammering out projects on PC after PC, many are on Linux. The Mac Pro part is the illusion, the PC reality is the engine!
The problem seems to be that the public accept the perception as a truth.
There is a reason large enterprises like FB and Paypal build themselves on SE Asian locations and labor!
Apple doesn’t want to compete with windows workstations, get it? It can’t compete. Want a super powerful, relatively cheap workstation – build a windows workstation, don’t get a Mac. Simple.
It seems like more of a case of “won’t” than “can’t” to me. The only ones preventing Apple from doing that are Apple themselves.
That line of thinking confirms Apple products are now a status symbol rather than practical purpose machines. I don’t think there are even that many businesses that would buy this hardware instead of year old parts with similar performance and major price reductions. Apple is staying afloat because it’s not Windows, and Linux isn’t ever going to become as user friendly as the major OSes.